I was hoping for some advice. I have a friend who will be staying the winter in Jasna, Slovakia, skiing and snowboarding. I wanted to schedule a visit sometime in mid-January. I will be flying out of NYC so I was thinking to go to either Prague or Vienna, spend 3 days and then venture to Jasna and spend 3 days skiing.. My plans are flexible and would consider other cities, I just need to get to Jasna for 3 or 4 days.. Is there one particular stopping place that would be better or more convenient for getting to Jasna?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I’m not familiar with Jasna, but since it’s in the low Tatras, it appears that the best way to get there would probably be bus from Strba or Poprad. My guess for easiest and possibly cheapest would be to fly to Vienna. You could spend a couple of days in Vienna/Bratislava (they’re about an hour apart by train and the Vienna airport is between them) and then take the train from Bratislava to Strba (about 4 1/2 hours) and probably a bus to Jasna. Bratislava will be slightly cheaper as a place to stay and I like it better than Vienna, so I’d take the bus to Bratislava directly from the Vienna airport and visit Vienna as a day trip.

Getting from Prague to Poprad will be more difficult — the train ride is around 8 hours, and that’s a lot of travel time for your short trip. While I love Bratislava, Prague is probably a better tourist visit than either Bratislava or Vienna so if you had more time, I’d recommend Prague — assuming you could find a flight to Prague for a similar price to what you find for Vienna.

The best way, and practically the only one, is the bus from Liptovsky Mikulas. See my private message.

If you have any questions about Prague or Czech and Slovak republics, ask me.
If you only want to search train or bus connection within Czech&Slovakia and/or to neighboring countries, use www.cp.sk or www.idos.cz search engines. For domestic transport, they also show prices.

How exactly are you going to fly to LM? Is there an airport I have never heard of? You meant you’re flying to Vienna and then taking a train (there are direct ones) to Liptovsky Mikulas, right? Or you meant flying to Kosice from Vienna?

Plenty of hotels in Jasna area. The whole region lives off winter sports. You’ll find various sorts of accomodation all within a short to medium walking distance from slopes. Just look around in Google Earth, the coordinates are 48.97 N, 19.58 E.

The original reply to JTS (from a private message) follows:
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Personally, I would prefer Prague. And not only because I have lived there for 12 years. It’s more like I live there, because I love it, not I love it, because I live there. Vienna is architectonically beautiful, too, but its atmosphere is rather sterile and unsurprising, some say it’s dull. Prague is more lively, more mysterious, looks good in any weather, has at least the same quality of architecture, and is much cheaper. I’d definitely go for Prague.

And as for trip to Jasna, both from Vienna and from Prague it requires only one transfer from train to bus. This can only be done in the town of Liptovsky Mikulas. Use any train from Vienna or Prague that goes to Kosice, it will also stop in L. Mikulas.

The bus station in L.Mikulas is adjacent to the train station, impossible to miss. The bus route you need is Liptovsky Mikulas – Demanovska Dolina, Jasna. Get out at the last stop, at Demanovska Dolina, Jasna, the bus turnaround is right in front of Hotel Grand in Jasna ski resort, the journey takes 30-35 minutes and costs €1.05 (plus some cents for extra baggage or skis).

Use www.cp.sk (set it to English) to search best connections. Just put “Praha” or “Wien” into From field and “Demanovska Dolina, Jasna” into To field, and it will count up all possible connections, showing the transfer time in L.Mikulas as well.

Just a note – the exact location of the ski resort Jasna is 48.97 North, 19.58 East, you can look around in Google Earth to become more familiar with it before departure. In the near vicinity of the ski resort, there are TWO caves, one classical, (of stone), and the other one is of ice and is fairly unique.http://en.wikipedia….http://en.wikipedia….

If you have any questions about Prague or Czech and Slovak republics, ask me.
If you only want to search train or bus connection within Czech&Slovakia and/or to neighboring countries, use www.cp.sk or www.idos.cz search engines. For domestic transport, they also show prices.

P.S. While there – it’s useful to know the pronounciation.
Jasna – Ya-snaa
Liptovsky Mikulas – Lip-tow-ski Me-cool-lush
Demanovska Dolina – Deh-men-ow-ska Doll-lee-nuh
Jaskyna – Ya-ski-nya
Kosice – Co-she-tseh
The accent is always on the first syllable of the word. If needed, ask any other words you want to translate (or write down the translation).

If you have any questions about Prague or Czech and Slovak republics, ask me.
If you only want to search train or bus connection within Czech&Slovakia and/or to neighboring countries, use www.cp.sk or www.idos.cz search engines. For domestic transport, they also show prices.

I also checked on flights from JFK to Prague. Round trip was 615.00 dollars. Including all taxes and non-stop on Delta. Sounds like a great deal. This trip is getting better and better. Thanks for all the great advice. Now help me with Prague…

What sort of help? Logistics within Prague? Tips for activities? Cheap lodging? Tell me what you like and what you expect, I’ll try to help.

The only advice I can give right now, is that you should take the 119 bus from the airport to the nearest metro station Dejvicka (which is already at the edge of downtown) instead of one of those tourist-milking airport taxis. The public transportation costs mere 26 crowns (about $1.45) per 75 minutes of usage or 100 crowns ($5.50) per 24 hours, the taxi from airport is never cheaper than 500 crowns.

If you have any questions about Prague or Czech and Slovak republics, ask me.
If you only want to search train or bus connection within Czech&Slovakia and/or to neighboring countries, use www.cp.sk or www.idos.cz search engines. For domestic transport, they also show prices.

Hey Papyr! You seem to be very helpful, so I hope you still use the forum! I am planning a trip to Jasna at the end of Feb. Do you know if the train company accepts all student IDs for the discount or only the ISIC/Euro26? I am 26 but can still get the European Youth Card, but it is worth it? Is it widely accepted in Slovakia? I may ask you a couple of other questions if that’s cool with you? Thanks in advance!

I skied in Jasna last Friday. Quite good conditions. It was snowing there during yesterday so I expect even better conditions. There is a lot of new every year in Jasna – new lifts, slopes and so on. Some more information: Jasna Slovakia